Our grantee spotlight for October 2023 shines on OneVillage Partners (OVP), a new grantee based in Sierra Leone.
OneVillage Partners:
- Works in partnership with villages to provide tools, training and funding that support residents as they take the lead in planning and implementing changes they believe will improve their economic well-being.
- Leads a program called NOW (Nurturing Opportunities for Women) to specifically address gender inequity and help women build skills and confidence to contribute to the future vitality of the community.
The Project Redwood $30,000 grant specifically supports expansion of NOW to serve 380 more women in eight communities. An unrestricted grant of an additional $2,883 was also awarded to broadly support OVP.
OneVillage Partners presents “Solutions to poverty by communities, for communities”.
The need for solutions is great in Sierra Leone where the majority of rural residents do not have enough food or access to clean water. OVP provides project facilitation, along with financial support, to empower community members to actively take charge and overcome this multidimensional poverty. Programs encourage social cohesion and gender equity and, ultimately, build resiliency and enhance health and well-being. Communities are also encouraged to collaborate on behalf of regional initiatives and see even greater change.
The issue of gender equity has remained because illiteracy and limited education continue to hold women back. In response, OVP developed its NOW program. Participants learn basic financial principles through a three-phased, picture-based education curriculum. They build the knowledge, skills, and confidence to participate in financial decision-making for managing a household as well as business and agribusiness.
Grantee sponsor Laurie Greeno (GSB ‘86) has been an admirer of OVP founder Jeff Hall for his past nonprofit work and immediately became an ardent supporter when OVP launched more than 15 years ago. She visited one of the participating village sites in 2013 and saw firsthand the impact OVP was making. Laurie continues to invest both her time and money to support the growth of OVP and explains her passion for OVP and its leaders this way:
”I believe strongly in OVP’s mission…it’s a dynamic organization, always evolving to find more effective ways to increase its impact. I believe they are doing the right thing (helping Sierra Leoneans to lift themselves out of poverty) in the right way (by developing sustainable solutions to the communities’ most pressing self-identified challenges, and by continuing to evolve those solutions to improve efficacy and impact). They develop & equip leaders; they listen first; they make a tangible positive impact on the lives of the people with whom they partner.
Not only do I have early first-hand knowledge of the NOW program, I have kept pace with its evolution…and the sustained positive impact on the lives of the women directly involved as well as the lives of their families and communities. Women are earning and saving more money, they have a say in their household decision-making, they have a voice in their communities, they are NOW equipped to lead change.
I am confident that an investment in NOW will reduce poverty experienced by rural Sierra Leoneans now and into the future by equipping women with the skills and confidence to change their own lives and communities. OVP has the leadership, the organization, the approach, and the drive to ensure that the 2023 NOW program will achieve promised results and then some.”
